We thought we’d blog about the highly anticipated Forrester Wave Report on Marketing Automation (which you can download for free here). We found the results very interesting indeed and it is by far the most exhaustive independent analysis of the marketing automation landscape available - it's certainly the report that we in the industry have all been waiting for (or in some cases, dreading!).
The report certainly validates our own preference for Act-On (compared to the other platforms out there) and it clearly rates them above the likes of Marketo and Salesforce/Pardot (especially below enterprise level although the report states that even Marketo’s “enterprise-class viability remains to be proven”).
About Forrester
If you’re not already familiar with Forrester Research, they are a global independent research company focused on business and technology, they employ 1,235 people and they service >2,400 customers around the world who all depend on them for accurate and unbiased information to make critical business decisions – such as adopting marketing automation. Their clients include most of the major Fortune 1000 companies, the major investment banks and many others.
About the Wave Report
The Forrester Wave Report is a detailed comparative analysis of products and services in a specific area like marketing automation. Each Wave report takes Forrester between 3 and 6 months to create and compile and it involves the creation of a comprehensive set of criteria for measurement, in-depth analysis of products and services and interviews with users and customers.
Wave reports in any given category – like marketing automation - are typically done only once every 18 months. In this report they refer to Marketing Automation as L2RM (Lead to Revenue Management) and in this L2RM category they created 75 evaluation criteria across 3 different dimensions:
(1) Current product
(2) Future vision
(3) Company strength
They evaluated 9 of the “most significant” solution providers/vendors. Two vendors (HubSpot and Teradata/Aprimo) declined to participate. They applied two lenses to help potential clients evaluate:
(a) Enterprise fit
(b) Small marketing team fit.
Our Immediate Observations & Highlights
- Act-On was the only company considered a leader for both enterprise marketing requirements and small marketing team requirements
- Act-On was the only private company for enterprise
- Act-On measured up to and beat companies that are bigger than them, older than them, have more funding than them, and have budgets many times the size of them – Oracle, Salesforce, IBM and Marketo included
- Act-On was one of only two companies noted for their "admirable job in delivering functionality for nearly every criterion in the evaluation" and they were rated above the other company anyway
- Act-On and Salesfusion were cited as the only two vendors which optimise low entry price points and robust capabilities and Forrester thus labelled them the “Leaders”. They also place Act-On ahead of Salesfusion at this top rating. Forrester went on to say that although they have strong functional performance, you would still have to take price and a commitment to smaller marketing teams out of the equation to label Silverpop, salesforce.com (Pardot) and Marketo as even “Strong Performers”
- They rated the top 9 providers in the following order (1) Act-On, (2) Salesfusion, (3) Salesforce/Pardot, (4) Silverpop, (5) Marketo, (6) Oracle, (7) Adobe, (8) IBM and (9) CallidusCloud
Forrester grouped all the providers using a sliding scale
(1) Leaders
(2) Strong Performers
(3) Contenders
They placed the 9 providers as follows:
Superfluity Opinion: Act-On Versus Marketo
We’ve used Marketo extensively and our feelings on their (very confused and overpriced) product are well documented. Using the Forrester report for both Enterprise Level and Small Marketing Teams then, versus Marketo, Act-On came out ahead on all the following areas (and were level pegging for many others):
Enterprise Level
- Customer engagement management
- Content and asset management
- Inbound support
For Small Marketing Teams
- Customer engagement management
- Campaign design, execution, management
- Content and asset management
- Inbound support
- Service and support
- Strategy
- Cost
Superfluity Opinion: Act-On Versus Salesforce/Pardot
We speak to a lot of people looking at this platform, often because they are already using Salesforce for CRM (so it’s perhaps an obvious choice). Using the Forrester report for Enterprise Level and Small Marketing Teams then, versus Salesforce/Pardot, Act-On came out ahead on all the following areas (and were level pegging for many others):
For Enterprise Level
- Campaign design, execution, management
- Inbound support
- Reporting, analytics and alerting
- Support for decentralised marketing operations
- Service and support
- Product strategy
For Small Marketing Teams
- Offering
- Customer engagement management
- Campaign design, execution, management
- Inbound support
- Support for decentralised marketing operations
- Service and support
- Strategy
- Product strategy
- Cost
Our View
We have observed for some time now how most of the top platforms seem to solely aim at the enterprise market. As a result, they either completely ignore (or at least massively underserve) every other type of user (just look at how Marketo, for example, actually charge their non-enterprise customers through the nose for basic customer support!).
The simple fact is that all of these providers ignore non-enterprise customers and we very much believe that companies with small marketing teams should not be ignored by any of the platforms because Smaller companies have as much ambition as anyone else and they have the right to benefit from the implementation and adoption of marketing automation and content marketing as much as anyone else. In many ways, they benefit from it even more than enterprise class businesses.
Act-On is (both in our opinion and what seems to be Forrester's opinion too) pretty much the only platform out there which has adequately evolved their proposition in this area. Act-On has gotten everything right for businesses turning over less than $500m and they are still very well suited and extremely competitive in the enterprise space. Act-On have gotten it right on each front and, with the support of master partners like Superfluity, their customers are achieving superior returns on their marketing investment compared to the other providers. Their fresh approach to marketing automation gives their users (and their partners) full functionality without the complexity that the other systems impose and they make campaign creation and program execution much easier and faster. Their ecosystem of partners like Superfluity enables clients to access the tools and support they need to achieve marketing success and do so at a better price than anyone else.
It’s no surprise to us that Act-On was selected by Forbes last year as one of America's Most Promising Companies and we note that they also made Inc. Magazine's list of the 500 Fastest Growing Companies and were added to the Deloitte Technology Fast 500™ list. Companies of all sizes are turning to Superfluity and Act-On in record numbers in order so as to execute integrated, multi-channel marketing and lead nurturing campaigns without all the huff, puff, fluff and flannel that seems to be so abundant amongst most of the other overpriced and overcomplicated platforms.
This report should definitely be a major wake up call to Marketo, Salesforce and indeed several others.
As the industry joke goes, what's the difference between Sameul Eto and Marketo? Samuel Eto is cheaper...
